PM's family divided between BJP, Congress

Manmohan Singh says he has no control over what his younger step-brother, who joined the BJP, does

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he felt “very sad” at his step-brother joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) even as his family literally got divided between the opposition party and the Congress, with another step-brother joining the Congress road show of party candidate Amarinder Singh in Amritsar on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Padma awards function in New Delhi, he said : “I feel very sad. But I have no control over what others do. They are adults.”

In Amritsar, just a day after the BJP embarrassed the Congress and Manmohan Singh by inducting Daljit, another step-brother, Surjit Singh Kohli, an entrepreneur, joined the Congress road show with Amarinder, who is contesting the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat against senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

Daljit had joined the BJP and shared the dais with BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi during an election rally here Friday evening.

“Today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s brother Daljeet Singh has joined the BJP. This will further strengthen us. We are not a membership party. We form blood relations,” Modi said in Amritsar while welcoming Kohli into the BJP fold with a warm hug on the dais. Daljit, a textile exporter, had told media that he joined the BJP as he was upset about the way that Manmohan Singh was treated by the Congress.